PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv
Glycine in the interstellar medium revisited: Resolving conformational complexity kinetically
Abstract
Numerous attempts to detect glycine, a simple amino acid and a key building block of proteins in all life on Earth, in the interstellar medium have so far been unsuccessful in spite of the fact that it is present in meteorites, comets and asteroids. Glycine is conformationally diverse, existing in eight different forms, and the aim is to show that interconversions, in the dark, are governed by quantum mechanical tunnelling at temperatures from 300 K down to 10 K and to compute the rate at which these changes occur resulting in recommendations to maximise a successful outcome.
Related
- Resolving the extended interstellar medium of infrared galaxies II. Fine-structure line emission
- Resolving the extended interstellar medium of infrared galaxies I. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission
- The Central Molecular Zone of our Galaxy, a chemical complexity factory: first interstellar detections of molecules towards G+0.693
- Frontiers of chemical complexity in the interstellar medium: unveiling the cosmic origins of life
- How Interstellar Gas and Ice Build Organic Molecules
BibTeX
@misc{wurmel2026glycine,
title = {{Glycine in the interstellar medium revisited: Resolving conformational complexity kinetically}},
author = {Judith Wurmel and John M. Simmie},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.17243},
eprint = {2609.17243},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17243},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Glycine in the interstellar medium revisited: Resolving conformational complexity kinetically
AU - Judith Wurmel
AU - John M. Simmie
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.17243
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17243
AB - Numerous attempts to detect glycine, a simple amino acid and a key building block of proteins in all life on Earth, in the interstellar medium have so far been unsuccessful in spite of the fact that it is present in meteorites, comets and asteroids. Glycine is conformationally diverse, existing in eight different forms, and the aim is to show that interconversions, in the dark, are governed by quantum mechanical tunnelling at temperatures from 300 K down to 10 K and to compute the rate at which these changes occur resulting in recommendations to maximise a successful outcome.
ER -